There are methods in education, counselling and social work that focus on having service users to “receive” correct interpretations. Narrative-based practices, however, focus on having service users to “express” themselves and have self-reflections, so that they can deconstruct and construct their values and perspectives. Narrative-based practices do not intervene service users in a didactical way, but they let service users make changes and strengthen themselves using their own words. Our training adds the aspect “media” on top of the foundation of narrative approaches, emphasizing that narratives are not only meanings and semantics, but they are expressions relying on material media, and such media have diverse modalities. Media-informed narrative interviews can be applied to various fields, such as psychotherapy, personage interview, individual sharing, group work, community education.

Organizer: PolyU’ s Professional Practice and Assessment Centre and humansWeb

Pre-requisite: Participants should have basic concepts of narrative therapy/narrative practice. Upon enrolment, participants should provide relevant proof (e.g. certificate, transcripts, or practice research results). Participants who have not yet equipped with narrative concepts may first enrol the course “Narrative Practice 101” at Udemy and submit the attendance certificate. https://www.udemy.com/course/101-vhsu/?referralCode=149405F7FDF95C360BAA (Participants of this training can receive a discount coupon for the Udemy course)

Course material: Participants will receive an electronic copy of Media-informed Narrative Practice Manual published in 2021.

Electronic certificate: Participants who completed the training will receive an electronic certificate signed by the Professional Practice and Assessment Centre of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Voluntary work and advanced practicum (by individual invitation, optional): Participants who completed the training will be invited to support the peer-counselling and interview works of “humansWeb”, and receive further supervision. humansWeb is a charity organization that uses narratives and media to enable personal and social developments, and it is an initiative evolved from several large-scale narrative projects conducted by the Department of Applied Social Sciences of PolyU.

Date: 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 of July 2021

Time: 9:30 am – 12:30 noon

Venue: Online participation via zoom

Language: Cantonese & English

Fee: HK$1,500

Enrolment: limited to 30 participants with a first-come-first-served basis (participant will be contacted individually for payment upon successful enrolment) 

Training content:

Instructors:

Dr Chitat CHAN, Registered Social Worker, Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he has focused his research on identity, storytelling, and media.  Dr Chan worked as a school social worker in 1990s, worked in secondary education in 2000s, and started teaching social work courses and supervising fieldwork placements since 2010. Chitat Chan received his social work degree, theatre studies diploma, and MPhil in Hong Kong, and earned his PhD from University of London in 2008. The Narrative Therapy course at PolyU has been coordinated and taught by Dr Chan since 2017. 

Jim DUVALL is Co-Director of JST Institute and Editor of Journal of Systemic Therapies. He has over three and a half decades of experience as a therapist, educator, consultant, speaker, editor and author. Jim is internationally recognized for his practice, research and innovative development in brief and narrative practices. His work aims to integrate time-sensitive therapeutic practices within a philosophy of social justice.

Dr Kong YAM has been a registered social worker for more than 20 years. He joined the Department of Applied Social Sciences (APSS) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2007. He is now a teaching fellow at APSS and serves as the programme leader of the Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Social Work Programme. Over the years, he has taught many core social work and counselling subjects, including Narrative Practice for Postgraduate Students. Dr Yam is also the Director of Professional Practice and Assessment Centre (PPAC) at APSS. The PPAC serves as a research and practice nexus for human service professionals locally and globally. It also aims to consolidate and promote practice knowledge of various intervention approaches through research, training and consultancy work, including the Narrative Practice approach. Dr Yam was awarded the Faculty Teaching Award and the APSS Department’s Best Teaching Award. Since 2008, he has actively participated in a number of social work education and practice-related research projects.

Should you have any enquiries, please contact Ms Hoyee Au-Yeung at hoyee.n.auyeung@polyu.edu.hk or 67097732.